17 civilians killed in Russian-Syrian strikes on northwest Syria, rebels' rockets on Hama

Russian and Syrian air strikes in northwestern Syria on Monday killed 11 civilians, five of them children, a Syria war monitor said.

"Joint raids conducted by Russian and Syrian warplanes on several areas including Idlib city and a camp for the displaced to its north" left 11 civilians dead and wounded dozens of others, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Meanwhile, Syrian Islamist-led rebels killed six civilians as they fired rockets at the government-controlled city of Hama.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies "for the first time... used rocket launchers to bomb neighborhoods of Hama city, killing six civilians", the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The presidents of Russia and Iran on Monday pledged "unconditional support" to Syrian leader Bashar-al Assad amid a shock rebel offensive in the country's northwest, the Kremlin said.

In a phone call between Vladimir Putin and Masoud Pezeshkian, the pair "expressed unconditional support for the actions of Syria's legitimate authorities to restore constitutional order and territorial sovereignty," the Kremlin said in a statement.

They also "emphasized the importance" of coordinating with Turkey, the Russian side said in its readout of the call.